Saturday, March 6, 2010

Ubisoft’s 'Uncrackable' DRM for PC Games Cracked in 24 hours

Ubisoft’s recently announced that a new DRM scheme for PC games that many claimed would be uncrackable. It appears that this DRM has been busted in 24 hours.

The DRM mechanism in question, rolled out initially in Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin’s Creed 2, took a new approach in that it relied on having a constant internet connection in order that the game files could be checked continuously for modifications or tampering. If modified files were detected or the internet connection dropped (or for that matter if Ubisoft’s servers went down), the game would shut down.

Now, I don’t condone software piracy in any shape, way or form, and I’m a firm believer in the idea that you should pay your way in this world. That said, this DRM scheme comes across as awfully heavy-handed and annoying. This DRM sounded so annoying that it was unlikely to stand for long.

And it didn’t.

A team of crackers going by the name of Skid-Row have managed to circumvent the DRM mechanism on Silent Hunter 5 in under 24 hours, releasing a crack for the game.